My introduction/ help with an officer sword please!

[Gunner1171]

 

Firstly I’d like to introduce myself and thank you for the opportunity to be a member of the forum. 

 

my name is Shawn and I am a long time militaria enthusiast and collector. I am just recently able to start collecting Japanese ww2 items but Japanese swords have always been a fascination of mine ever since I was young. History of Samurai and the art of hand forging traditional blades etc etc is just incredible and I’m excited to start learning and hopefully one day be able to collect more and more amazing pieces! 

 

this sword I wanted to share is my very first sword ever and I know very little about it. I started by joining some Facebook groups dedicated to the subject but the responses have been a very disappointing mix of snarky, and over my head. A few people have given me the time of day with genuinely helpful responses but most are very vague or contradictory to each other. 

 

I bought this sword from a friend who is a militaria dealer but proclaims to not know too much about swords. He does have a guy who validated it for him as a proper ww2 officers blade but that’s as far as I got. I dont typically make purchases when I’m not totally confident of an item and have a knowledge base to back me up but this was what I thought was a very fair price and I was super excited for the opportunity. 

 

also please forgive me if there is a proper way to show photos of the sword I am very ignorant but if I’m doing something wrong let me know and I will make the corrections 

and I apologize about being so new and uneducated about this I promise to learn all the lingo eventually but when you help me on this particular post please remember I probably have no idea what your telling me so please dumb it down. My knowledge base is very beginner but I do know a little of the terminology. 

 

anyways… I greatly appreciate you all! 
 

sincerely, 

 

 -Shawn

[SteveM]

Hello Shawn,

The guy that evaluated your sword was correct. It is a genuine WW2 sword. The writing says 

関住兼松一則作 - Seki-jū Kanematsu Kazunori saku

 

which means: Made by Kanematsu Kazunori, from Seki (city)

 

Kazunori is the swordsmith's "professional" name. His real name was Kanematsu Kazuichi. Swordsmiths usually use a professional name that has some significance to their family or to the master craftsmen whom they apprenticed under. Anyway, the smith is Kanematsu Kazunori, who was what they call an RJT smith, which stands for Rikugun Jumei Tōshō (an "army-appointed swordsmith"). The small hot-stamp above the hole in the tang is actually an image of a cherry blossom with a kanji character "昭" inside the outline of the blossom. the kanji character is the first character of 昭和 (Shōwa) which is the era name of the era during which Hirohito (aka "the Showa Emperor") lived. This stamp was put on swords that were made in an arsenal, to differentiate them from completely, traditionally hand-made swords. So this means your sword is not 100% traditionally made, but instead was made using some modern methods and materials. Nonetheless, it is still an authentic piece of militaria. It looks like the tang was aggressively cleaned with some steel wool or something, which unfortunately stripped the tang of some of its patina. Cleaning with any abrasives or solvents will most likely ruin the blade - or at least damage it so that it will need to be restored by a traditional Japanese polisher. But set that aside for now, your blade is OK as is. 

 

There is some more information in the thread below (although the first link seems to be broken). 

 

[DTM72]

Steve nailed it. Could not have done better myself. I was typing a reply, but he answered before I could. I agree 100% with all that he said.

[Gunner1171]

You guys are amazing! 
 

some of the fellas on some fb groups just mentioned to me that it was strange that there is no hole in the handle for a D ring to mount an officers silk tassel. Is that true? 
 

There was also a lot of debate over the mounts being military”ish” but not the normal ones seen… they said this suggested possible prewar production or something. I’m not sure. Others said this sword is indicative or a late war blade however one guy said that the swordsmith died in 1944… one individual said that the mountings were typical late war military.
 

Here is a quote from one of the group members:

 

“The brass Tsuba / hand guard is a Shin Gunto military Army  as is the Menuki ( ornament s) under the silk wrapping also Shin Gunto.  The rest of the mounts are a non military type special order for what ever reason they never had a hole made to take a D ring for the Silk a rank Officers Tassel.”

 

everything has been so contradictory on those fb groups. 
 

the biggest debate however has been of the saya (scabbard I think?) if it’s civilian or military or what exactly it is and why it’s in it. 
 

Also I would love to hear what would your appraisal of value for this sword be?

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Shawn,

Care and handling: https://nbthk-ab2.or...ord-characteristics/

The bamboo pin (mekugi) looks as if it may have broken. If it no longer does a good job of locking the blade in the handle be sure to replace it as soon as possible; it is important. You can whittle a good quality chopstick.

Grey

[montrealfan1986]

Awesome piece, thanks for sharing!

[Bruce Pennington]

Hi Shawn!

Welcome to Japanese sword collecting!  Your mixed fittings are typical for a sword that was originally owned and fitted as a civilian sword.  Many blades made in during the war were still bought and owned by civilians.  But due to sword shortages, the government/military made a couple of big public drives to get civilians to donate or sell their swords for the war effort.  These civil swords then got re-fitted in widely varying combinations to militarize them.  The Kabutogane (end cap) and wooden saya (scabbard) were likely how the sword came to the military. The re-fitting operation simply left them in place and put military menugi, tsuba, and seppa.  The saya would have been covered with a leather cover, and a belt ring added.  Both have gone missing in the post-war timeframe.

 

Lots of free education available on these sites:

 

THE Japanese SWORD GUIDE (japaneseswordindex.com)

 

Military Swords of Imperial Japan (Guntō) (ohmura-study.net)

 

Master Index for Reference Articles written by Nick Komiya (warrelics.eu)

 

You can read about the stamps on this article:

Stamps of the Japanese Sword

 

And lots of other topics here:

Member Articles

[Bruce Pennington]

I have 2 other Kazunori, showa-stamped, blades on file and they are both in civil fittings:

[mecox]

Shawn, you got some good info above,   your sword:  関住兼松一則作 - Seki-jū Kanematsu Kazunori saku

Here is a bit more:     

KAZUNORI (一則), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Kazunori” (一則), real name Kanematsu Kazuichi (兼松一市), born June 10th 1894, he worked as guntō smith. He registered as a Seki swordsmith in Showa 14 (1939) October 26, which was early on, and he was age about 45. He died early in December 9th 1944 (age 50), posthumous Buddhist name Zendō Myōtoku (善導妙徳)

 

Another example:  bottom stamp is about being made by kobuse method with core steel.

      

 

 

[Gunner1171]

I appreciate everyone’s help. It has been a learning curve but I’m enjoying the process! 
 

lots of different ideas about this one and I’m looking forward to getting some books and learning more.